For both jointly and individually held deposit accounts, we recommend discontinuing the mailing of account statements to the address that was marked “deceased.”

Individual Accounts

Once you have received notice of the customer’s death, you should hold onto any subsequent account statements until an an executor, administrator, trustee or other appropriate representative of the deceased customer requests the information. Otherwise, if you continue to mail account statements to the deceased account holder’s address, you may expose the decedent’s private financial information to unauthorized third parties.  

Joint Accounts

For a jointly-held account, we recommend that statements be mailed only to the surviving account holder after the death of a joint account holder. Due to privacy concerns, we do not recommend mailing statements to the deceased joint account holder’s address if it is different than the surviving account holder’s address. This practice risks exposing the surviving account holder’s private financial information to unauthorized third parties, which also would violate federal and Illinois privacy law.

For resources related to our guidance, please see:

• Illinois Banking Act, 205 ILCS 5/48.1(a)(2) (Customer information protected by the Illinois Banking Act’s privacy requirements includes “a statement, ledger card or other record on any deposit or account, which shows each transaction in or with respect to that account.”)

• Regulation P, 12 CFR 1016.3(q)(2)(i) (Customer information protected by Regulation P’s privacy requirements includes “(B) Account balance information, payment history . . . (C) The fact that an individual is or has been one of your customers . . . .”

• Joint Tenancy Act, 765 ILCS 1005/2(a) (“When a deposit in any bank or trust company transacting business in this State has been made or shall hereafter be made in the names of 2 or more persons payable to them when the account is opened or thereafter, the deposit or any part thereof or any interest or dividend thereon may be paid to any one of those persons whether the other or others be living or not . . . .”)